The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil,political,economic,social,health and cultural rights of children. The convention defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen,unless the age of majority is attained earlier under national legislation.
The age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. In legal terms,it is referred to as a defence/defense of infancy,which is a form of defense known as an excuse so that defendants falling within the definition of an "infant" are excluded from criminal liability for their actions,if at the relevant time,they had not reached an age of criminal responsibility. After reaching the initial age,there may be levels of responsibility dictated by age and the type of offense committed.
Helena Ann Kennedy,Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws,,is a Scottish barrister,broadcaster,and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College,Oxford,from 2011 to 2018. A Bencher of Gray's Inn,an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She is President of Justice,the law reform think tank and currently is director of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights.
The Juvenile Justice Act,2000 is the primary legal framework for juvenile justice in India. The act provides for a special approach towards the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency and provides a framework for the protection,treatment and rehabilitation of children in the purview of the juvenile justice system. This law,brought in compliance of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),repealed the earlier Juvenile Justice Act of 1986 after India signed and ratified the UNCRC in 1992. In the wake of Delhi gang rape,the law suffered a nationwide criticism owing to its helplessness against crimes where juveniles get involved in heinous crimes like rape and murder. In 2015,responding to the public sentiment,both the houses of parliament in India further amended the bill that proposed adult-like treatment for juveniles aged 16–18 above accused of heinous crimes. The lower house,i.e. Lok Sabha passed the bill on 7 May 2015 and the upper house,i.e. Rajya Sabha on 22 December 2015. The bill was approved by President Pranab Mukherjee's assent on 31 December 2015.
Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor is a South African politician,educator and academic serving as the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation since 2019. She has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the African National Congress (ANC) since 1994.
Brigitte Sylvia Mabandla is a South African politician,lawyer and former anti-apartheid activist who served in the cabinet of South Africa from 2003 to 2009,including as the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development from 2004 to 2008. She became the South African Ambassador to Sweden in January 2020. A veteran of the African National Congress (ANC),she was an elected member of party's National Executive Committee between 1997 and 2012.
Johann Christiaan Kriegler is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 1995 to November 2002. Formerly a practising silk in Johannesburg,he joined the bench as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division in 1984. He was also the first chairperson of the post-apartheid Independent Electoral Commission and Electoral Commission of South Africa.
The timeline of children's rights in the United Kingdom includes a variety of events that are both political and grassroots in nature.
The University of Pretoria Faculty of Law was established in 1908. It consists of six academic departments,six centres,two law clinics and the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP). This faculty has Departments of Jurisprudence,Mercantile Law,Private Law,Procedural Law,Public Law and Centre for Human Rights. The faculty offers the undergraduate LLB degree,and postgraduate LLM/MPhil and LLD/PhD degrees.
Jennifer Yvonne Mokgoro GOB was a South African jurist who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa from October 1994 to October 2009. She also chaired the South African Law Reform Commission between 1995 and 2011. She qualified as a lawyer in the former Bophuthatswana and was a legal academic before she was appointed to the bench by President Nelson Mandela.
Sandile Ngcobo is a retired South African judge who was the Chief Justice of South Africa from October 2009 to August 2011. He served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from August 1999 until his retirement in August 2011. Before that,he was a judge of the Cape Provincial Division and the Labour Appeal Court.
Thembile Lewis Skweyiya was a South African lawyer and judge who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa between February 2004 and May 2014. He rose to prominence as a civil rights lawyer during apartheid and he served three years in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court before his elevation to the Constitutional Court.
Johann Vincent van der Westhuizen is a South African who served on the Constitutional Court of South Africa from February 2004 to January 2016. He was a professor of law at the University of Pretoria from 1980 to 1999,when he joined the bench as a judge of the High Court of South Africa.
The United States has signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC);however,it remains the only United Nations member state to have not ratified it after Somalia ratified it in 2015.
Narandran "Jody" Kollapen is a South African judge who joined the Constitutional Court of South Africa on 1 January 2022. He was appointed to the apex court by President Cyril Ramaphosa after a decade of service in the High Court of South Africa. He is also a former chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission.
Paul Verryn is an ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. Known for his anti-apartheid activism,he was Bishop of the church's Central District between 1997 and 2009. During that period,he was a prominent and controversial figure for his activism against xenophobia,and clashed with the South African government over his decision to accommodate hundreds of refugees at his Central Methodist Church in the Johannesburg city centre.
Sisi Virginia Khampepe is a retired South African judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa between October 2009 and October 2021. Formerly a prominent labour lawyer,she joined the bench in December 2000 as a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division. She was also a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Intersex people in South Africa have some of the same rights as other people,but with significant gaps in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and protection from discrimination. The country was the first to explicitly include intersex people in anti-discrimination law.
Aoife Nolan is an Irish academic who is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre. She is President of the Council of Europe's European Committee of Social Rights,and an international advisor on the rights of the child and economic and social rights and strategic legal implications. She has led international research projects and acted as a consultant to United Nations or other global institutions on human rights and strategic law.
Janet Yetta Love is a South African civil servant,activist and former politician who has served as vice-chairperson of the Electoral Commission of South Africa since 2018. Before her appointment to the Electoral Commission in 2016,she was a part-time commissioner at the South African Human Rights Commission from 2009 to 2016. She was also director of the Legal Resources Centre from 2006 to 2018.
